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The King of the BIG CATS
By John Benson
When Alexander Lacey was a child, his two dreams were to continue the family business working with big cats and to tour America in the Greatest Show on Earth.
Those dreams and more are coming true for the U.K. native this spring as he’s one of the featured acts in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s “Dragons” show, which comes to Youngstown on Friday through Monday at Covelli Centre.
“It’s like you’re at the top of your game when you get a chance to work for Ringling Bros., and I’m very happy, very proud,” said Lacey, calling from Uniondale, N.Y. “It’s very awesome to be in America and tour all over the states. I find the audiences to be very appreciative. They love to see the big cats, especially when you have a mixture of lions and tigers, which is something I have that is very unusual.”
Before coming to America, Lacey spent the past several years touring with his big cats throughout Europe earning numerous awards and accolades, including “Best of the Best” at the Circus Festival in Monte Carlo, Silver Clown award in Monaco and the Chapiteau de Crystal Award in France.
Basically, Lacey was born into the big-cat world. His father was a zoo and circus director, and his mother traveled the world and presented a mixed act of tigers and leopards. Over the decades, the family raised 11 generations of lions, nine generations of tigers and continued to develop methods to maintain the integrity of the various bloodlines within the cats’ lineages.
The reason a show of lions and tigers (no bears, oh my!) is quite unique in the circus world is intermingling species comes with plenty of challenges. However, Lacey said time and planning are the secret to making such a dangerous presentation work.
“We’ve had the time and the facilities to mix all of the lions and tigers together from basically day one,” Lacey said. “They grew up with one another, and that way they get used to being with one another and form a friendship between them from an early age. At the end of the day, all big cats are like people. You have different races, but we’re all people, and we all get along.”
Basically, by having generations of lions and tigers ensures there is no inbreeding among the animals. Lacey said that means his family ends up with healthy, intelligent big cats that aren’t nervous or scared, two traits that could lead to unstable beasts. However, just because the cats have solid lineage doesn’t mean they’re tame.
“We have to use the one thing we’re supposed to have as far as the animal kingdom is concerned, and that’s our intelligence,” Lacey said. “If I think an animal doesn’t want to perform, or think a dangerous situation is about to occur, then I avoid that. If we have a female in heat, you have to do one of two things, leave the female out of the act for the three or four days she’s in heat or you decide to leave out one of your males, because when the males smell the female in heat, they’ll become very aggressive toward one another.”
Lacey contends that he’s so close to his cats that he can tell if they’re hungry, in a good mood or bad mood and feeling sick.
“Just like humans, lions and tigers are right or left handed,” Lacey said. “So you can avoid dangerous situations. To this day, I’ve never really had any dangerous situations. I’ve had times when it could have escalated to something dangerous, but I avoided it.”
Finally, Lacey understands why some folks may think he’s crazy or he possesses a death wish spending so much time around ferocious beasts.
“No, I’m not crazy,” Lacey said, laughing. “You could say the same about NASCAR drivers, but you love what you do. I love what I do. And I do it because I love big cats.”